School Lunch Recipes

Little Aria's preschool classmate Mary welcomed her second baby sister two weeks ago. We thought we would prepare a homemade meal for her family. Ground beef is perfectly suited to toddlers' palates, so for the main dish, Aria and I prepared mac and cheese comfort food with a nesting beef and tomato bed of its very own.

First, I prepared the bottom layer with a mixture of ground beef, tomatoes, thyme and onions. Then I added creamy Cheddar mac and cheese.

I've included a picture of the menu once we wrapped up the entire meal for Mary's family.

Our family recently went to a Japanese sushi bar and enjoyed platters of delicious rolls. When I came home, I was inspired by the sushi and reinterpreted a new fusion appetizer, maki-style.

The appetizer consists of a tofu roll filled with shiitake mushrooms, carrots celery, insanely fragrant onions I grew myself in our garden and garlic. As I created the dish, I realized I wouldn't be able to keep the roll in place by simply rolling a sheet of pan-fried tofu. I improved and wrapped them in phyllo dough. You'll be surprised; it wasn't that complicated. Sometimes, improvisation ends up with beautiful results!

We call our daughter baby Aria but she's already a "big girl". It's hard to believe she's starting preschool today. It's something my husband Lulu and I have been discussing for a while. We were unsure whether we wait another year for her to go to school and start socializing with children her age on a daily basis. So we finally made the move and Aria is ready and seems excited about school.

I've been proactive about getting her mutiple classes such as gymnastics, toddler reading club and swimming lessons, but I've always been there by her side. And even though I'm looking forward to sending our child off to preschool for the first time, Aria is my first baby and I know this transition is going to make me very emotional. I promised myself that I'd contain my tears; we'll see how it goes.

So without further ado, here's a list of back-to-school items that I hope will inspire you to create a wide variety of meals for your little ones.

These charming finger sandwiches were probably the only thing I could have prepared in the tiny kitchen of the Roman apartment we rented while in the capital city of Italy last week. But it didn't stop me for preparing yummy sandwiches for Aria and me, using local products such as ricotta pannarella and black Angus bresaola meat.

Bresaola is salted lean and succulent beef that is air-dried until the meat turns dark red. It originated from the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. And I first discovered out-of-this-world ricotta pannarella while ordering a cheese platter in a restaurant in Rome. We asked the waiter to give us his best selection and I have to admit it sure was! Now I'm just hoping I'll be able to find some back in the US!

I prepared the finger sandwiches with crust-free, sliced white bread, a mixture of caramelized fennel and ricotta, sliced cucumbers and of course, freshly-made mozzarella cheese and delicious bresaola meat.

We've been experiencing rainy days in the Bay Area and I thought a little comfort food would warm us up. I couldn't decide between a shepherd's pie or mac and cheese, so I went for a combination of the two.

To keep the dish vegetarian, I prepared the bottom layer with a mixture of vegetarian protein crumble, tomatoes and onions; you could opt for regular ground beef if you prefer. Instead of topping the dish with mashed potatoes as you would in a standard shepherd's pie recipe, I added creamy mac and cheese. Needless to say, the richness of the dish was a huge hit even baby Aria asked for more!